Personality and the Workplace

Abstract

The workplace is difficult enough without us having to worry about the different personalities we encounter each and everyday. Our jobs are a place where we come in contact with many people, both co-workers and clients, and each of their distinct personalities. If we all had the same personality it would be easy for us to predict what the other person is thinking and feeling, but since we don't we must learn to deal with the many different personalities that we come into contact with each day.

I work in a hospital where emotions can run high at any moment and from any angle you can imagine. We have to deal with the patients, doctors, visitors, nurses, and everyone else who works and visits. Yet, as complex a place as this is and as sad a place as it can be, we do have some good things that occur when we work together and set our differences aside. When I came to work at the hospital where I currently work, I did not know how long I would stay. The place was a disaster, no one knew what they were doing and they did not care. Employees would spend the day walking around the hospital making believe they were doing something when all they were really doing was wasting time. The other part of all this I did not enjoy was the lack of communication and overall team work we lacked as a department. I knew I had my hands full, but I was not sure how to approach the situation. The previous two hospitals I worked in had similar problems which I helped resolve, but the problem here was more of an employee cultural issue. At the two previous hospitals I worked in, most of the employees were of the same or similar cultural background, so it was easy to see where they were coming from when issues came up. Here I found myself in a place where the cultural and racial make-up was very unique and so were the employees. As I studied each employee I learned (from previous experience) what to expect from the personality traits I saw in the person. This was a start; I saw a starting point to solving my lack of work and team work issues with the employees. I also noticed how employees of the same cultures bonded together and did nothing but criticize the others. Now, from experience I know that most people speak ill of others without knowing them, they speak only from what they hear and therefore assume it to be true.

Along came my solution (one which I had used before), I broke the employees into teams and I made sure that each team (of either 3 or 4 employees) had people of different culture or gender (though I must admit this was not always possible). I then assigned each team their own area of the hospital which they were responsible for. I explained to each team that if there were any problems in their individual areas only that team would be held responsible. I also made it clear that I would not accept any excuses if the job was not done correctly or if one person within the team slacked off. What I did was to make the teams responsible for their own actions, I gave them an opportunity to take pride and responsibility in the work they do. I also gave each team the chance to get to know the people they were working with, the same people they once spoke ill about.

My little project concerned my boss (the Director), he stated that no one has been able to get these employees to work together and that he did not think this would work but that he would allow me to do what I wanted for now. At this point I too had a goal, to make this idea work; my head was also on the chopping block. The first 3 weeks I was a nervous wreck, I had to make sure that everyone was doing what they were supposed to be doing and that they were not killing one another. At about 5 weeks into the project I started to see some small but positive results. These changes were reported to me by the doctors and nurses who usually see what my department's employees do since we are all over the hospital. I was starting to feel good and continued to make more changes where I saw fit. My goal was to get everyone working as a team and to teach them that all people are different but if given a chance we can all work together.

Now 8 months into the project my boss is very happy with the results and so am I. There were times where I thought the whole thing was going to fall in my face, but I stood my ground and I only had to fire 2 employee during this time (not bad when you consider the fact that we have 85 employees in the department).

This was not just an experiment in learning to work together, this was also an experiment in human behavior, though this last part was not my original intent, only now do I realize what really occurred. In the end the employees learned to work together and learned that by doing so the work becomes much easier and can be done faster and with better results. It is obvious now, when we look back, how serious a problem we originally had. No one really gave it much thought until I put my neck on the line and tried it, but this is exactly why the Director hired me